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7/20 Day of Remembrance honors victims with service, healing events

Tom Sullivan and his wife, Terry, hold hands as they visit the grave site of their son Alex Sullivan on Thursday, July 18, 2013, in Wheat Ridge. (Ed Andrieski, Associated Press)

Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan praises citizens for pulling together last year after the movie theater shooting. He spoke at a memorial at The Potter's House of Denver on Wednesday along with Bishop T.D. Jakes. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)

Mayor Steve Hogan appeared to be running on autopilot in the days after the Aurora theater shooting. He was the face of a city that had just been struck with a great tragedy, but as leaders tend to do during times of crisis, he didn't show much emotion.

That changed Wednesday night during a worship service marking the first anniversary of the mass murder. His voice cracked as he paused several times trying to gather his thoughts shortly after someone else spoke about a young shooting survivor who was left quadriplegic.

Hogan said he isn't sure how he might react Saturday during the city's 7/20 Day of Remembrance, but one thing is certain: He is a changed leader.

"As it relates to being mayor, it's probably made me more cognizant that there may not be a tomorrow," Hogan said Thursday. "So if I have an agenda, or things I need to get done, I'd better start doing them."

Saturday's event starts at 7:30 a.m. with a community gathering on the lawn at the Aurora Municipal Center. A half-hour ceremony beginning at 8:30 a.m. will include prayer, song and comments by Hogan and Gov. John Hickenlooper.

After the ceremony, volunteers will disperse to community-service projects across the city.

Others may participate in healing activities, including a collective art project designed by the Downtown Aurora Visual Arts center that allows people to trace their hands on glittery golden paper, cut them out and write a wish for the future. The wishes will be affixed to a large wire wall.

"Being able to do something that results in a physical object or write something, then see it as part of a bigger art project, is a very powerful statement," DAVA executive director Susan Jenson said. "Every form of creative expression is healing, especially when done in a group project."

Community-service projects organized through nonprofits include work at Project C.U.R.E, Food Bank of the Rockies, Aurora Mental Health Center, the Boys and Girls Club, Aurora Middle School and others.

Volunteers working with Boys Hope Girls Hope of Colorado will help clean up the Girls Hope home near Parker and Arapahoe roads. Tasks will including outdoor cleanup, weeding, trimming and organizing the food pantry and storage closet. A local Boy Scout troop is helping out.

"I see it as an opportunity to provide a space for people to give back in remembrance of others," Boys Hope Girls Hope executive director Mary Fran Tharp said. The Hope Homes provide safe housing to at-risk kids and give them help getting through high school and into college.

At the newly opened Aurora Strong Community Resilience Center, volunteers will paint planters and replant an old garden. A portable labyrinth also will be painted, and plans call for it to be taken to different locations. Walking through a labyrinth can be relaxing, center manager Grace Zolnosky said.

Whether participants in the Saturday events number 10 or 10,000 — the number that showed up to a memorial at the municipal center the Sunday after the shooting — does not matter, Hogan said. What is important is to remember all those affected by tragedy and give back to the community, he said.

"We wanted to make sure it was low key. We wanted to make sure it was personal," Hogan said. "We wanted to make sure it was more than just a couple of folks standing up and saying, 'We remember.' "

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